1
As Violet hovered in that reflective space between asleep and awake, she reached up to feel for her nose. Thankfully, it was still there. Practically numb, but there. She burrowed deeper under the blankets. Not quite ready to face another day in the dreary tower, she squeezed her eyelids shut. Perhaps she could delay the inevitable by drifting back to sleep and returning to the garden of her dreams.
There, sunshine warmed her through and through. There, she frolicked about and admired Mother Nature’s handiwork with no walls to confine her. And there, the colorful hummingbirds never left her side.
Merciful sleep did not come, however. The young girl rolled over and squeezed in tightly against her mother underneath the old wool blankets they shared. Her delicate snore soothed Violet’s frigid nerves. She fingered the soft leather bracelet she wore on her tiny wrist, and soon her own breaths matched those of her mother. Comfort filled her. As long as she had her mother, she could bear anything. Even the bitter cold.
A while later, her mother stirred and Violet’s stomach growled. When had they last eaten? Yesterday? The day before? The cold made Violet’s thoughts fuzzy, but surely Maggie hadn’t forgotten them yesterday. She made a point to come every day, for she and her husband, George, were the only connection Violet and her mother had to the outside world. Maggie’s visits were important, treasured even, and not just for the food.
“Are you hungry, my little princess?” her mother asked, rolling over and kissing her daughter’s forehead.
“Aye. Starving,” Violet replied. “What did we eat yesterday? I can’t seem to recall.”
“Boiled eggs. One in the morning and one in the evening.”
Now Violet remembered. She detested boiled eggs. She must have pushed them from her mind, so unpleasant was the experience of having to choke them down.
“I do hope she brings something else today. Bread and freshly whipped butter. With fresh strawberries. And cream to drink.”
“Strawberries don’t grow in the winter, silly girl. You remember, don’t you? They grow in early summer, when Lady Sunshine magically transforms the berries from green and paltry to red and plump.”
Violet licked her cold, cracked lips. “And bursting with sweet flavor. Oh, Mama, what I would give for just one strawberry. Remember the first time I tasted one, from the plants George grew in the secret garden?”
Her mother sighed. “I do indeed. Good friends, George and Maggie have been—that’s for sure. Risking so much to show us kindness. We’re forever in their debt.”
“Aye,” Violet said, deep in thought, remembering warmer and happier days.
“Come on, now,” her mother said, sitting up. “Let’s not mope about. After all, we have a treasure to find today. Isn’t that right?”
Violet sat up, too, a smile slowly spreading across her face. Just like that, the straw beneath them wasn’t a mattress at all, but a ship sailing across the rolling waves of the ocean. “Have we almost reached land, Captain Nuri?”
“Ahoy, matey. See there? Land straight ahead!” Her mother pointed across the room. “It won’t be long now. Do you have your treasure map?”
Violet reached toward the wall directly behind the mattress and pulled out a loose stone. Hidden away were a quill pen and ink, along with some parchment and a lovely book of artwork. Over the years, Maggie had smuggled various items into the tower for the two prisoners so Violet could learn to read and write and draw. Violet grabbed the treasure map she and her mother had drawn as they imagined an island with warm, sandy beaches and palm trees, and a chest filled with jewels waiting to be discovered.
“The sea is getting rough,” Captain Nuri said. “Are you sure you are capable of landing this fine vessel?”
Violet handed her mother the map, then stood up on the mattress turned ship. She curled her fingers, making a small hole with each hand, and put them together before she placed them over her right eye. It was as if she were looking through a spyglass, just like her mother had taught her. She was no longer a girl shivering in a tower, but a pirate, strong and brave, ready to fight battles and locate the buried treasure.
“Captain Nuri, I will have no trouble landing this ship. If I can survive all these years in this tower, I believe I can do anything!”
Nuri smiled proudly. “That’s my girl.”
Text copyright © 2016 by Lisa Schroeder
Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Nicoletta Ceccoli
